


Locked Door

by CadenzaRose



Series: Stuck in Small Spaces [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-06-09 13:47:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6909874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CadenzaRose/pseuds/CadenzaRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Semi-follow-up to Caged in which Alya and Nino decide to take Adrienette into their own hands... by locking Marinette and Adrien in a classroom. Hey, if it worked for them, it could work for their friends too, right?</p><p>Which, of course, is when an akuma attacks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Locked Door

“So, remind me again—why are we going to school on a Saturday?”

Alya glanced back at Marinette, rolling her eyes. “I told you girl, you just have to trust me. You’re gonna love it.”

Marinette frowned, but kept walking. Ordinarily, she would have demanded more details before going further. However, she had a sneaking suspicion—no, make that a definite hunch—that this had something to do with Adrien, and she wasn’t about to let unconventional circumstances keep her from seeing _him_. When they finally arrived at the school, Alya sprinted up the front steps, dragging a weakly protesting Marinette after her. She led her up the stairs and down the hall until they were standing right in front of their homeroom door, then spun on her heel. Her grin was slightly worrying.

Marinette stared at the door, feeling her apprehension grow. “Are we even allowed to be here today?” she said softly. “What would Principal Damocles say if he found out?”

“Oh please, he won’t find out,” Alya scoffed. “Trust me, it’ll be fine.”

Marinette bit her lip. “You keep saying that. Why does it make me nervous that you keep saying that?”

Alya ignored her and pushed open the door. Sure enough, they were not the first to arrive. “Nino! Adrien! What a surprise!” Alya said, stepping into the room.

Marinette was one hundred percent sure it was no surprise at all, but she followed Alya in anyway. Adrien and Nino looked like they had been waiting for a while.

“Alya! Sweet!” Nino said, opening his arms for a hug. Alya pounced on him, nearly causing him to lose his balance, and buried her face in his chest. When she raised her eyes to look at him, she was grinning widely. He grinned back. Marinette swallowed. The two had been thick as thieves ever since the Animan incident—dangerously cute, but dangerously mischievous as well. They seemed to be leaning towards the latter now. Behind the couple, Adrien offered Marinette a wave and a small smile. She blushed furiously and, after a second, remembered to wave back. Adrien’s smile widened, and Marinette resisted the temptation to duck behind the door and hide forever.

Alya and Nino finally broke apart, trading their hug for a hand hold, and walked together towards the door. When they reached it, they turned to face Marinette and Adrien, who were staring at them with a mixture of confusion and curiosity.

“I suppose you’re wondering why we gathered you all here today,” Nino began with the imperious voice of a mayor about to begin a speech.

Alya snorted, then recovered herself and picked up his tone flawlessly. “Well, lately, we’ve been thinking very hard,” she said, “and we’ve come to a conclusion.”

“A very important conclusion,” Nino added.

“Yes, Nino,” Alya said solemnly. “A very important conclusion.”

They paused. They exchanged a look.

“Oh come on, you two, just spit it out already!” Adrien said.

“Alright, alright, chill man,” Nino held his hands in front of him in a gesture of surrender. “We’ll tell you. We just…”

He looked at Alya again and nodded. Alya’s grin widened. She yanked the door open and flung herself into the hall, Nino following closely behind them, then slammed the door shut with a bang. Adrien and Marinette blinked.

Then Marinette realized what was going on.

“Oh, no…” she muttered. “No, Alya, don’t do this to me…”

She stepped forward and tried the handle of the door. Sure enough, it wouldn’t budge.

“Alya, you did _not_ just lock us in here,” Marinette said, pressing her forehead to the door.

“Oh, come on, Mari.” Marinette could hear Alya giggling through the door. “You know all it took for me and Nino to get together was to be locked in a cage for a couple of hours. Now, this classroom isn’t quite a _cage_ but it’s the closest thing we could come up with, so…”

Marinette didn’t know what to think. Half of her was furious at Alya for tricking her into this, and the other half was completely overwhelmed at the prospect of spending the next few hours completely alone with Adrien. She was going to make a fool of herself, she knew. But she was with _Adrien_ …

“What’s going on?”

Marinette squeaked and spun around as his voice sounded directly behind her.

“I. Um. I-it’s Alya and Nino,” she stammered. “They locked the door.”

“What?” Adrien’s eyes widened. He stepped forward and tried the handle. When it didn’t move, he started pounding his fists against the door. “Come on, Nino, not cool! You know I have a piano lesson at 3!”

“I’ll get you out before then, man,” Nino snickered. “Just hang out in here for a while first. It’ll be great, promise.”

“What on earth is that supposed to mean? Nino!” Adrien kept pounding on the door. Their friends’ gradually fading laughter was the only response.

Adrien turned back to Marinette, slumping against the door. “I’m sorry, Marinette. It looks like we really are stuck here.”

His pose, with one shoulder slightly raised, looking up apologetically with those gorgeous green eyes, sparked fireworks in Marinette’s stomach. “No, you’re fabulous!” she squeaked. Adrien raised an eyebrow. “I mean amazing!” _WRONG DIRECTION ABORT ABORT_ \- “I MEAN FINE!” she half-recovered, blushing furiously. “You’re fine! I’m pretty sure it’s all Alya’s fault anyway…”

“Yeah,” Adrien straightened up, shaking his head. “It’s amazing what those two will do to get some alone time together. Although if they had just asked…”

Marinette blinked and decided immediately that it would be best if Adrien didn’t know the real reason their two friends had trapped them in this room.

“Oh, you know those two,” she said, waving a hand and forcing a short laugh that she hoped didn’t sound _too_ forced. “Can never guess what they’re up to, amiright? They just… do their thing…” _Stop talking Marinette stop talking this is getting worse-_ “You know?” she finished lamely.

Adrien didn’t seem to notice Marinette’s awkwardness or internal panic, or if he did he was kind enough to pretend that he didn’t. He just nodded ruefully.

“Well,” he said, straightening up, “if we’re stuck here, we might as well make the most of it. Why don’t--”

The rest of his sentence was lost in a resounding crash that shook the entire building. Marinette had to grab hold of a desk to keep herself from falling. Her eyes flicked instantly towards the windows.

An akuma.

Marinette and Adrien both rushed towards the window for a better view. Sure enough, in the street below, they saw a man in a brightly colored costume wielding a giant axe and strolling through the streets, laughing maniacally.

But where had that crash come from?

Suddenly, the axe-wielding man stopped, planted his feet squarely on the ground, and swung his axe through the air in a great arc, aiming at nothing. Marinette squinted her eyes. What could he possibly…

Then the axe stopped in midair with a solid-sounding thunk that Adrien and Marinette could hear even through the closed window. A huge tree appeared in the air directly in front of him, the axe sticking halfway into its trunk. The man pulled back the axe for another strike, this time slicing cleanly through. The tree swayed in the air for a moment then fell to the ground with another earth-shaking crash, sending leaves and branches flying everywhere. Terrified citizens fled into whatever building was closest, frantic to escape the rain of debris.

“Come out, you filthy cheater!” the man screamed. “Come out and face the Lumberjack!”

Marinette and Adrien looked up at each other.

“I have to-” they began in unison, then stopped.

There was nowhere to go.

Marinette began to scan the room frantically for another exit. Nothing. _Oh, please let a tree fall on the school_ , she begged. _Break down the roof or the door or_ something _so we can get out of here and I can transform…_

But the Lumberjack was walking away from the school, stalking through the streets in search of the person who must have beaten him in the summer fair’s lumberjack competition.

Adrien tugged on the windows, but they were designed to keep even the strongest middle school students from opening them without the proper key. Now, a superhero could shatter them easily, but seeing as there were none of those to be found…

“Oh, come on, who locks windows?” he said thorough gritted teeth. “Marinette, could you try the door again?”

Marinette did, but it was still shut tight. “I’ll call Alya,” she offered. “She can let us out of here.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Adrien said, giving up on the window and turning instead to lean against it. They both waited in silence while Marinette’s phone rang once… twice…

“Girl!” Alya answered. “Are you okay? The akuma didn’t come to the school, did he?

“No, not yet,” Marinette assured her. “But Alya, you have to come let us out, ASAP! He could come back, and if we’re still stuck in when he does, he-”

“Sorry girl, I can’t,” Alya cut her off. “Even if I wanted to. Nino and I are trapped in your parent’s bakery. There’s a giant tree blocking the door.”

Marinette groaned.

“Don’t worry, you should be safe!” Alya said. “Ladybug will be here any minute. She’ll take care of this guy, and as soon as she does, I’ll let you out. Promise. I-”

There was another huge crash. The phone fell silent.

“Alya? _Alya!?_ ” Marinette looked at the face of her phone. A red message flashed across the screen—Signal Lost. A tree had probably fallen on a cellphone tower somewhere. Perfect.

“They’re trapped in the bakery,” Marinette said to Adrien, slipping her phone into her pocket. “We’re stuck here.”

Adrien made a face, but recovered. “Well, I’m sure Ladybug will take care of it soon.”

“Or Cat Noir…” Marinette muttered, not quite loud enough for Adrien to hear.

They both went over to the window again. Adrien tapped his fingers against it impatiently. Marinette bit her lip. Should she do something? She didn’t want to reveal her identity to Adrien, but Cat Noir wasn’t showing up.

Then she remembered. Tikki could phase through doors. She could get them out of this.

Making sure Adrien still had his attention focused on the window, Marinette slid over to the door, opening her purse as she did so. Tikki’s bright, round eyes looked up at her inquisitively.

“Tikki, I need you to phase through the door and unlock it,” she whispered, watching Adrien to make sure he didn’t hear. “I think it’s our only chance to get out of here.”

Tikki nodded and whizzed out of the purse, flying through the door as if it weren’t even there. Marinette watched Adrien nervously, but he seemed to be absorbed in examining the window latch, head down, face completely hidden. In a few moments, Tikki reappeared through the door, shaking her head.

“I’m sorry, Marinette,” she said, flying close to her holder’s ear. “They propped a chair against the handle. It’s too heavy for me to move alone.”

Marinette bit her lip. “It’s okay, Tikki, you tried.” She turned back towards Adrien, who was just then backing away from the window, shaking his head. She took a deep breath.

She’d just have to tell Adrien.

There were a million different voices in her head giving her a million different reasons why it was a bad idea. He could freak out, he could get captured by Hawkmoth and spill, he could just flat out slip up and accidentally let someone in the class know who she was. All of that, any of that, would be utterly unacceptable.

But what other option did she have? said single, louder voice said. Besides, would it really be so bad if Adrien knew who she was? She trusted him. He would keep her secret.

The million voices chorused angrily, but they didn’t seem to be giving reasons anymore. They just kept repeating a single word:

_“Secret. Secret. Secret.”_

Yes, it was her secret. Her jealously guarded secret. She must not tell anyone. That was rule number one. Not even Adrien. No one could know. It had to be that way.

Right?

Or was she just being stubborn? 

She was biting her lip so hard she almost drew blood. She didn’t know what to do anymore. Her mind was blank.

“Marinette.” Adrien’s voice broke the silence, bringing Marinette back to herself. “I’m really sorry to have to do this, but I don’t think I have a choice.” He turned away from the scene outside to face her fully.

“What?” Marinette blinked.

“I’m not supposed to tell anyone,” he continued, putting a hand on her shoulder. “But I trust you. And if I don’t tell you, then-”

“N-no… wait…” That was her line. Why was _he_ saying it? What was going on? She wasn’t thinking straight. He had his hand on her shoulder. Some small part of her was still alert and was setting off alarm bells. She didn’t think she wanted to hear what Adrien was about to say. She wasn’t supposed to hear it.

“I know. I’m putting you in a bad situation. I’m sorry. But I have no choice. I-”

There was another crash from outside. They both winced at the sound. Then the sound faded and the pair was left in utter silence. Marinette’s heart was beating fast, and so loud she was surprised that Adrien couldn’t hear it. She swallowed as he fixed his eyes on hers.

“Marinette,” Adrien said, his voice steady. “I’m Cat Noir. I need to transform so I can fight this akuma. I wouldn’t have told you, except I don’t see Ladybug anywhere and I can’t let that thing rampage around the city. I have to do something.”

Marinette said nothing. Her shoulder was tense under Adrien’s hand.

“Marinette? Are you okay?”

Her first illogical reaction was anger. _We weren’t supposed to know, dummy._ Then the reality of the situation came crashing down on her like one of the Lumberjack’s trees. Cat Noir was Adrien. Adrien was Cat Noir.

A flurry of other emotions flashed through her in a heartbeat. Anger gave way to fear—there was a reason they kept their identities secret, and it would be more dangerous now that she knew. Fear was overwhelmed by shock, unable to quite believe that her pun-loving, leather-clad partner was the same boy she had been obsessing about for the last year. But shock soon faded when she thought back on all of Adrien’s more open, playful moments and all of Cat’s more serious, caring ones. The two fit. In fact, each gave the other a dimension they had lacked before. With both personas, he was complete.

And also, she had to admit, completely attractive. Which led to her last emotion.

It wasn’t lust, although the thought of Adrien in a skin-tight literal cat suit should probably have had that effect. It was hope. With Cat in the mix, Adrien suddenly seemed human. She hadn’t realized that she had deified him so much, and in doing so had made him seem so unattainable. But now, he wasn’t. He was just a kid, like her, who laughed and made stupid mistakes and even stupider puns.

And was completely obsessed with her.

Oh.  

“Marinette?” Adrien had hold of both her shoulders now and was shaking her gently. “Marinette, please, answer me!”

She looked up into his brilliant green eyes positively brimming with concern. He was gorgeous. And he cared about her. Well, Ladybug, anyway. A smidge of doubt leaked into her hope. Did he feel the same about Marinette?

A loud crash from outside shattered her thoughts. She shook herself. It was time to fight akumas, not think about _feelings._ Work with the facts, Marinette. Sort out everything else later.

“So… you’re Cat Noir. That’s what you said, right?”

Adrien nodded. His face was the picture of anxious concern. “No one else knows, not even Nathalie. I’m sorry, I never wanted to bring you into this. I just… Ladybug isn’t coming and I don’t know why…”

Marinette swallowed and forced herself to keep her eyes on his face. _Facts, Marinette,_ she told herself. _Stick to the facts. The situation’s changed. Adapt._

Technically, she didn’t have to tell him. She could wait for him to transform and break down the door or the window, and transform somewhere quietly when he had gone to fight the akuma. But that didn’t seem fair.

“I know why,” she said.

“What?” Adrien blinked.

“I know why Ladybug isn’t there yet,” she said again, louder, trying to sound confident rather than terrified.

Adrien frowned. “How-” He paused, stared at her for a moment. Then comprehension dawned on his face. He took a step back. “No way.” He broke into a broad, cat-like grin. “No way. Marinette? It’s you?”

Marinette nodded, starting to smile again. “I was just debating whether or not to tell you, since Cat Noir didn’t seem like he was going to show up…”

The grin did not leave Adrien’s face for a second. He turned away from her, and started walking around in small circles. “It’s you,” he kept repeating. “It’s been you this whole time…” Then he stopped walking and looked up at her, his face more serious. “I am so sorry. I know you didn’t want us to reveal our identities. If I had known it was you…”

“If you’d have known it was me, there wouldn’t be any identities to reveal, would there?” Marinette teased. Then her voice became more serious. “It’s okay, kitty. We… we’ll just have to be more careful now. We can’t let anyone else find out. Not a soul.”

“No, of course. I would die before I betrayed you, my lady,” he said, and she could tell he meant it. It both flattered and alarmed her, but she didn’t have time to worry about that now. Besides, hearing “my lady” come out of Adrien’s mouth was distracting enough as it was. And right now, they needed to focus.

“Thank you, Adrien. Really,” she smiled. “Now, it seems like we’re late for an akuma fight. Shall we?”

“Of course, my lady.” He extended his hand towards her in a motion that was so Cat-esque that she couldn’t help but giggle. But with _Adrien_ doing it…

She felt blood rise in her cheeks and shook herself. _Focus, Marinette. Feelings later._

“We need to transform first, silly kitty,” she said, pushing his hand away.

“Ah, right. That,” Adrien said hurriedly, withdrawing his hand with a flourish. Had he honestly forgotten? Well, it was a bit jarring to be using their nicknames for each other out of costume. Adrien lifted a flap of his overshirt. “Plagg, time to transform!”

A small, black, cat-like kwami spun out of Adrien’s pocket. It yawned hugely. “But I was having such a nice nap,” it said petulantly. Then it spotted Marinette. “Oh, I see you’ve finally decided to reveal your identities. Nice. So can I see Tikki now?”

Marinette blinked. “Wha-”

But before she could finish, Tikki came spiraling out of her purse and hurled herself at Plagg. They met in the air in a whirl of red and black.

“I haven’t seen you in a long time, Plagg,” she said when they finally stopped spinning.

Plagg smiled. “I missed you too, sweet tooth,” he said.

“We’ll have to catch up later though,” Tikki said, turning back to Marinette. “Now, we have to transform!”

“Aww, do we really have t-”

But Plagg didn’t have a chance to finish his sentence before Adrien had shouted his signature catchphrase. He spun into Adrien’s ring. Marinette watched in amazement as black leather replaced Adrien’s jeans and t-shirt.

“Come _on_ , Marinette, time to transform!” Tikki said, tugging at her sleeve.

“What?” Marinette snapped her eyes off of Adrien’s transformation. As she expected, the leather was somehow more distracting when she knew it was Adrien underneath. “Oh, right! Spots on!”

Pink light swirled around Marinette. When it had finished, they stood in front of each other, Ladybug and Cat Noir, superhero duo, Paris’ saviors. Cat grinned.

“After you, my lady,” he grinned, bowing grandly. Marinette smiled and kicked the window. It shattered gloriously. A cool breeze blew into the room, ruffing their hair on their foreheads. She turned towards Cat.

“Hey, can we talk about this later?” she said, proud of how she somehow managed to sound collected when her heart was hammering mercilessly against her ribs.  

Cat’s smile softened. “Of course. I believe Adrien and Marinette are still locked in this room, anyway, and it would be extremely suspicious if they were found anywhere else after the akuma was defeated. We can talk then.”

Ladybug nodded gratefully and unhooked the yoyo from her hip. “Then let’s go.”

 

It took perhaps 20 minutes to defeat Lumberjack. There was a slight snag when Ladybug got trapped against a building by one of Lumberjack’s giant falling trees, but after Cat turned the tree to sawdust with his Cataclysm, it was a simple matter of using the Lucky Charm’s extra-hold wood glue to get his axe stuck in the next tree he tried to create and using her yoyo to snap the handle. She caught the black butterfly before it had flown two feet and purified it as usual, and tossed the empty glue canister in the air, watching with satisfaction as the tiny ladybugs whizzed around the city, removing the giant felled trees and repairing the buildings they had fallen on. Up at the school, they repaired a very specific shattered window, fetching the glass up from the street and mending it seamlessly back into a solid pane.  

Their miraculouses beeped in sync. Cat looked over at her. “Well, shall we go, my lady?”

She nodded, and together they swung towards the school. It felt different to leave a fight together, but not uncomfortable. Quite the opposite. It felt right.

They arrived in the courtyard of the school just as their transformations were wearing off. There was a flash of light, and Adrien stood before her, Plagg spinning away with an exhausted sigh.

“Cheeeeeeeese,” he groaned. “Adrien, I need cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese.”

Adrien rolled his eyes and pulled a wedge of some sort of stinky white cheese from his jacket. _He’s been keeping cheese in his jacket this whole time? How did I not notice that?_ Marinette wondered in amazement. Tikki flew around to perch on her shoulder.

“Hungry as always,” she shook her tiny head.

Marinette smiled at her. “Not unlike some other tiny red kwamis that I know.” She pulled a cookie from her purse and held it up to her shoulder. Tikki took it gratefully and began to munch.

They made their way back to the classroom. The door was exactly as Tikki had explained when she had tried to unlock it. Alya and Nino had stolen a chair from one of the other classrooms and “locked” the door by wedging it against the handle.

“You know, I’m almost ashamed that we couldn’t move that from inside,” Adrien said, shifting it aside. “It seems like it would be so easy.”

Marinette shook her head. “Simple, but devious.”

They made their way inside. After they shut the door behind them, Tikki and Plagg phased through the door and reset the chair, apparently able to maneuver it now that there were two of them, and flew off into their respective sleeping places, too tired for the moment to catch up with each other, though they promised to do so soon. Everything was as it had been. Alya and Nino would never know they’d left. Adrien stared at the locked door.

“I still can’t believe they’d lock us in here,” he said, hands on his hips, head tilted slightly to one side.

Marinette laughed tightly. Adrien looked up at her. She had a feeling that if she had just been Marinette, he wouldn’t have thought twice about that laugh. Tightness was normal for Marinette, around Adrien anyway. But now that he knew she was Ladybug…

“Okay, so why did they lock us in here, princess?” he asked, smiling, eyebrow raised.

She blushed when he said “princess,” though she knew in her head that it was just Cat and she shouldn’t be bothered by it. Just one of her closes friends turned out to be her long-time crush. No big deal, really.

Oh, so was it time for feelings now? Akuma defeated, and them standing back in the locked room with no one but each other and their kwamis for company? Seemed as good a time as any.

Problem was, her feelings were so stupidly _simple._ She had liked Adrien for months now, and cared deeply about Cat, as a partner. Now that she knew they were the same person, she just cared about him even more.

She just didn’t know if he felt the same way.

“Marinette?” Adrien asked hesitantly.

Oh, that’s right. Adrien asked you a question, dummy.

Marinette stuttered a response. “T-they… well, you remember after Animan, after I locked them in that cage, how they realized they really liked each other and became a couple?”

Adrien burst out laughing. “That was _you!_ You locked them in that cage! I mean, of course it was you, Ladybug, but _Marinette_ … sticking your two friends in a cage like that… were you hoping something would happen?”

Marinette blushed furiously. “No! I just needed the two of them out of the way!”

“And so you very conveniently locked them away together in a place where they’d have to spend the entire akuma fight in no one but each other’s company?”

“Yes! I mean no! I mean, that’s not what we were talking about Mr. Agreste,” Marinette folded her arms huffily. _You’re lucky I love you, you idiot._

Well, that thought made her blush. Had she really just thought _love_?

Adrien’s voice interrupted her thoughts nicely. “Oh, that’s right. We were talking about _them_ locking us in _here_ ,” he grinned. Marinette’s blush deepened. That’s right. That _was_ what they were talking about. “What were you saying? They became a couple after they were locked in a cage, so they…” realization dawned with a bright red blush on his cheeks. “Oh. Oh, I get it now.”

“Yeah,” Marinette didn’t quite meet his eye, not sure what she would find there. “I think our friends are a bit… enthusiastic about us.”

Adrien chuckled. “Well, it sort of worked, didn’t it?”

Marinette’s eyes snapped up to his face. He was blushing, one arm raised to scratch the back of his head, not looking at her.

“W-what do you mean?” she stammered. 

“Well, I just mean… They wanted us to realize that we liked each other, right? And I mean, I realized… you were one of my first friends Marinette, my first real friends, and Ladybug…” he raised his eyes to meet hers, blushing furiously. “Ladybug was my first love.”

Fireworks exploded in Marinette’s stomach. She didn’t know what to say. It was like a dream.

In her silence, Adrien stammered forward. “I mean, _is_ my first love. I still love… I love Ladybug. I love you. I…” He must have realized that he just said “love” four times in less than two seconds because his blush deepened and he snapped his eyes back to the carpet.

Marinette took in his red face, his hunched shoulders, his absolutely adorable expression, and felt bubby giggles rising in her chest. Soon, she couldn’t contain them and they burst forth, sparkling in the air. Adrien looked up at her, eyes wounded.

“What? I was being serious, I-”

But he stopped speaking when Marinette shook her head, still smiling and giggling.

“No, no, it’s not that. It’s just…” she took a deep breath, calming her giggles, and looked up at him, smiling softly. “I’ve been in love with you ever since you gave me your umbrella,” she said, voice quiet but steady, tongue tingling at the word “love.” “In love with you, and best friends with Cat. You’re right. It looks like their plan worked.”

Adrien’s eyes widened. They both stood there, blushing furiously, silence stretching. Marinette was devoutly thankful that Tikki and Plagg were napping. She had a feeling they would have broken the silence with some choice embarrassing words. As it was, Adrien spoke first. His voice was soft.

“I’d really like to kiss you now,” he said.

Marinette’s eyes widened. Then she relaxed and giggled. “Silly kitty,” she said, leaning forward.

Their lips met exactly when the door burst open.

“Girl, I’m so sorry, I-” Alya said, then stopped. Marinette and Adrien had sprung away from each other the instant they heard her voice, but she had seen enough. “Never mind. Not sorry. Not sorry at all. Come on, Nino, we’re leaving.”

“What, bu-” They heard Nino’s voice from outside the room. He sounded understandably confused.

“Nope, no questions. We’re leaving. I’ll catch you later, Mari!” She grabbed hold of Nino’s wrist and dragged him away, closing the door behind her, though not, Marinette noticed, replacing the chair. Thank goodness.

Adrien and Marinette were left standing in the once-more silent classroom, listening to their friends’ footsteps fade into nothingness. When they couldn’t hear anything else, Adrien turned towards Marinette.

“Did you want to talk more about this whole thing?” he asked, taking her hand. “Before we left to fight the akuma, you mentioned…”

Marinette nodded. “I’m not sure I have any more words, though. It will just take a while to process. And we have to figure out how this changes things, and if Hawkmoth has any edge now that our identities aren’t a complete secret. But not now. I don’t want to think about that now. It’s just…” she blushed and turned her head to the side. “I’m glad it’s you, Adrien.”

She snuck a peek back at his face. He was smiling.

“I’m glad it’s you too,” he said. “I’m really glad it’s you.”


End file.
